Coneflower, Meadowbrite

Plant of the Week

Coneflower Latin: Echinacea Orange Meadowbrite

All of our garden flowers originated as wildflowers. Most were developed by breeding
and selection during the gardening explosion that occurred in Europe between 1820
and 1870.

Not surprisingly, in the current gold rush mania that gardening has become in the
last decade, plant breeders have again gone back to the wild to look for new garden
plants. In the last decade, breeders have reinvented one of these – the coneflower
– to produce stunning new perennials with totally new colors.

Save one, all of the six or so recognized species of coneflowers (Echinacea) are found in the Ozarks. Most are prairie plants or glade dwellers in the open woodlands.
The purple coneflower (E. purpurea) has long been grown in gardens with the other species mostly left alone in the wild,
at least until recently.

Beginning in 1997, Dr. Jim Ault of the Chicago Botanic Garden, began hybridizing coneflowers.
He crossed the familiar purple coneflower with E. paradoxa, the yellow coneflower found in limey soils of the southern Great Plains. The several
hundred seedlings produced from this first-hand cross were uniformly purplish pink.

These initial hybrid seedlings - the F-1 hybrids in breeding parlance - were crossed
amongst themselves and seed saved. This second generation (the F-2 generation) flowered
for the first time in 2001. These seedlings segregated into a rainbow of colors ranging
from pink to yellow and all shades in between. Many showed a distinctive orange color.
From this population, 50 distinctive new color forms were selected.

One of the best of these was Orange Meadowbrite, a 30- to 36-inch tall coneflower
released in 2004. It’s like the typical purple coneflower in growth habit except for
the unusual shade of its three inch wide flowers.

Orange Meadobrite flowers from late May through early summer, producing blooms that
are a unique shade of orange. Some call the color tangerine, which is close but still
not exactly right. The color changes shades under different lighting conditions and
as the blooms age. Because it has undertones of other colors besides orange, it blends
well with other perennials. Uncharacteristically, Orange Meadowbrite flowers have
a distinctive spicy orange fragrance.

Orange Meadowbrite is a hybrid between the familiar purple coneflower and the yellow
coneflower. It’s one of the many new hybrid coneflowers making their way into our
gardens.

Ault has produced upwards of 20,000 coneflower seedlings during the last decade and
continues to release new introductions.

Mango Meadowbrite (a branch sport of Orange Meadowbrite) was introduced in 2005. Ault’s
2006 release is Pixie Meadowbrite, an 18-inch tall, long flowering pink with E. tennesseensis parentage. He describes Pixie Meadowbrite as having “an incredibly long bloom time
and small perky flowers”.

Future releases from the Chicago program will include clones with plants having various
shades of red, apricot and white. These new clones are mass produced in tissue culture
and have become hot items amongst gardeners wanting the newest plant introductions.

Other than requiring at least four hours of sunlight and good drainage, coneflowers
are easy to grow. They do best in a rich soil and have good drought tolerance once
established. Trimming off the blooms can encourage a later flush of flowers. But,
because finches love to pick the seeds from the mature cones in the fall, many gardeners
prefer not cutting the plants back after flowering.

The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture does not maintain lists of retail
outlets where these plants can be purchased. Please check your local nursery or other
retail outlets to ask about the availability of these plants for your growing area.